| Edward B. Sell | |
|---|---|
| Residence | Lakeland, Florida |
| Nationality | American |
| Style | Chung Do Kwan Taekwondo |
| Rank | 9th degree black belt in Taekwondo |
| Website | http://uscdka.com/about-uscdka.html |
Edward B. Sell is an American martial arts instructor, and the highest ranking non-Asian practitioner of tae kwon do, holding the rank of 9th degree black belt in the art.
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Edward B. Sell is the founder of the United States Chung Do Kwan Association (USCDKA)[1] and the only non-oriental to be recognized by the World Tae Kwon Do Federation as a 9th Dan Black Belt in the Chung Do Kwan school of Taekwondo, making him the highest ranked non-asian Tae Kwon Do practitioner in the world.[2] Grandmaster Sell was a member of the United States Air Force from 1959 to 1967. For much of this time, he was stationed at Osan Air Base in Korea, where he began to study Tae Kwon Do. In 1969 he published America's first Tae Kwon Do training manual, Forces of Tae Kwon Do, and he has been featured on the cover of the Tae Kwon Do Times twice, in September 1988 and June 1997.
Both Sell’s wife Brenda J. Sell and their son Ronald Sell are high ranking black belts in tae kwon do. Brenda holds the rank of 8th degree black belt and Ronald currently holds the rank of 7th degree black belt.
In 1967 Sell began the "Korea Tae Kwon Do Association of America" in Trenton, Michigan. In 1974, he renamed his organization the "United States Chung Do Kwan Association" and relocated it to Lakeland, Florida. Its current president is Sell's wife, Brenda J. Sell, an 8th Dan Black Belt[3] and the only recognized female American Tae Kwon Do Grandmaster. The USCDKA derives its roots from the World Chung Do Kwan Association and World Taekwondo Federation (WTF). It currently contains nearly 250,000 members and over 4,000 black belts, and is considered the oldest Taekwondo organization in the United States.
The USCDKA is known for its development of the Instructor's Degree System. Degrees of black belts, or dan, are earned separately of instructors' ranks. Each black belt is immediately eligible to earn an instructor degree upon earning their respective rank, but first must complete various training seminars (called NCITs), pass background checks, and demonstrate techniques in a manner similar to previous instructors. This is done to promote a sense of uniformity among schools, which are located all over the United States and Canada.